He Says: Cabot Cliffs
Warning: golf post!
Traveling across Canada provides the opportunity to play some of the best golf the country has to offer, and on our way north from Halifax to Newfoundland we spent a night in Inverness in Cape Breton, and I played at Cabot Cliffs Golf Course.
Cabot Cliffs is one of two golf courses (along with Cabot Links) in the small beach town of Inverness, both of which are relatively new (less than ten years old). The courses are among the best in Canada and attract visitors from all over the world. While definitely not cheap, golf in Cabot is on the bucket list of most Canadian golfers.
It was fascinating to hear how the opening of the two courses has transformed the small town of Inverness. In between the hundreds of jobs at the golf courses themselves, there were restaurants and BnBs all supporting the hordes of tourists who have come to play the best courses in Canada.
In one word the course is breathtaking, every hole requires the player to think about their tactics and strategy, along with stunning views on most holes. The experience was overwhelming at first, and I struggled to focus on the task at hand of hitting the little white ball in the general direction of the hole!
Teeing off down the 10th hole (my last), a par 5 that hugs the coastline.
For pure strategy and tactics my favourite hole was the par 4 13th hole, where you have to decide how closely to play to water that runs down one side of the hole - take the long route and you get a bad angle, take the risk on and you can use a big bank on the left to run the ball down to the hole.
Hole 13: a shortish par 4 with hazards all down the right, and the big bank to the left of the green you can use to funnel your ball down.
For scenery it’s hard to look past the 16th hole. From about 150m you hit over the cliffs towards a tiny little green perched on the rocks…you can be standing on the green and 5 paces from a 20m ragged cliff. I tried to snap a pic of the hundreds of balls I could see in the cliff face (including one of mine!)
Hole 16: the signature hole at Cabot Cliffs - the green is perched on top of the cliff…don’t be distracted by the ocean like I was!
Amanda joined me for the back 9, even trying her hand on a few of the shorter holes. Being able to share my experience with her helped reinforce just how lucky we were to be there, and made the bad shots that much easier to swallow. Full points for the fish tacos and seafood chowder at the Cabot pub afterwards too!
We couldn’t have asked for a nicer afternoon (especially when we woke up to pouring rain the next morning!) before we headed back to our BnB for some rest and a 15 hour travel day as we head north to Newfoundland.
